Dinner, and a Movie?
by pippychick
Summary: Chapter Eight: John Hart admits to why he has turned up. Surprisingly, he appears to have told the truth to Ianto about money. He also owns up about why else he sent the lizard. Jack/Ianto slash content.
1. Chapter 1

**Author:** Pippychick  
**Fandom:** Torchwood  
**Rating:** R  
**Pairing(s):** Jack/Ianto  
**Summary:** A little one-shot that I couldn't help but write.  
**Disclaimer:** Russell T Davies owns these characters and their world. Please don't sue me for playing with them, mister. They're so pretty. I promise to wash them both down afterwards with hot soapy water and give them back. I make no money out of this.

**Author's Note:**

Dinner date, anyone? I really, really just couldn't help myself. And I have tonsillitis. Well, that's my excuse.

This hasn't been beta read. To be honest I was seized by the need to post it while (a) I have a working pc, and (b) I have an working broadband internet connection. So any mistakes let me know and I'll get them corrected. Thanks.

Please, please let me know if this works for you. I'm trying to get the characters right, as it's going to be important if I'm to complete another different WIP Jack/Ianto story. I need to know if Jack and Ianto are in character. Thanks again.

**Dinner, and a Movie?**

They were led to their table by a waiter who left them with the menu and the wine list. Jack slid into his seat and looked over at Ianto, feeling a little excited and incredibly enthusiastic about the whole thing.

"So! Here we are!" he said happily. Ianto raised his eyes from the wine list and glanced dryly Jack's way. Then he smiled briefly. He was so polite he made Jack feel like a fool.

"Yes, here we are." Ianto went back to studying the wine list as Jack watched him. Strange how new all of this felt. Of course, he had taken many people out to dinner over the course of his life, and yet... this was new. Those other times he had been someone else – been with someone else. He'd always been well aware of the effect of his charisma and his looks. Now, for the first time, it all seemed to count for nothing as he wondered what to say.

"See anything you like?" he asked with a little innuendo, and then cringed inwardly as Ianto looked up again. "Sorry," he added, playing the admonished child to Ianto's disapproval, looking up under his eyelashes to lessen the damage. Ianto just sighed. Then he shut the wine list with a snap.

Always deliberate Ianto. Jack watched as his dinner partner straightened the napkin and the various forks by the side of his place setting. At first glance, someone who didn't know would assume it was a sign of nervousness – but not Jack. He knew Ianto a little, enough to know that what he was seeing was not nervousness but ease and calm. And he wanted a little bit of that calm to call his own.

"Before we go any further, Ianto, I just need to know one thing," Jack said seriously, catching and holding Ianto's gaze easily. Silence encouraged him to continue. "Have you done this before?"

Ianto's lips quirked into the most adorable little smile before he answered with a straight face. "Of course, Jack. I have been out to dinner many times."

Jack almost groaned. As it was he felt his mask slip just a little before he realised it was a joke. "I meant –"

"I know what you meant," Ianto reassured him quickly. "And the answer is still yes."

There was a pause while Jack regained his ever present slight smile and leaned back in his chair a little. Other questions immediately presented themselves to his mind. Who? When? Where? Were they any good? Why wasn't Ianto with them now?

"Now it's my turn," Ianto said softly, surprising him from his musings. "You have asked a question, now I get to ask you one." Jack nodded slowly, hoping against hope that this wasn't going to be difficult. That was somewhat impossible, unless Ianto asked him about work, and he felt his heart fall to somewhere in his shoes in hopeless terror. This had been a bad idea.

"First time here?" All of the time from before that meant nothing, and he had used his blessings to gain himself things. Secrets, blackmail, treasure. Nothing had been beneath him. Seduction was as powerful as war – but that wasn't what this was, or it shouldn't be. He wanted more from this than satisfaction. It was somewhat of a epiphany to him.

"Yes," he said softly, almost whispering, then looked across the table. Ianto looked slightly surprised, and Jack glanced around him, suddenly realising the question had been as simple as it sounded. "Oh..." he said weakly, then laughed a little. "It's still yes."

"We have several options now," Ianto said, and Jack nodded, waiting for them to be listed to him. God, it was like being at a job interview. "We can go on like this while you try desperately to hide yourself from me, all the time wanting me to know who you are."

Not a very palatable option, and Ianto was exactly right. That is precisely how it would go, and neither of them would want to repeat the experience. "Alternatively, we could talk about work."

Again, not great. Especially considering the only movie he had been able to get tickets for was one about aliens. He still hadn't broken that to Ianto yet.

"The last one then, would be that we can pretend we know each other. You can be relaxed and I will allow you to seduce me slowly over the course of the meal."

The way he put it made Jack's eyes widen in surprise. He looked at Ianto and there it was, that hidden side of him no one else seemed to notice. It was the age-old silent conversation that Jack knew so well. From his side, the question: Are you up for it? And from Ianto: Are you? Jack laughed and shook his head a little.

"I like the last one," he said warmly, signalling the waiter over who had been hovering in the background. He shuffled over slowly, and Jack dropped his eyes to Ianto with no artifice whatsoever.

"What wine are we having?" he asked, and then let Ianto order the wine for them both. He simply sat back and finally relaxed. Perhaps, actually, this had been a damn fine idea. No wonder – it had been his.

* * *

Ianto was a man of his word, and though Jack had never doubted him it felt great to relax into flirting and innuendo as they ate and chatted about meaningless things. That little smile... Ianto really should smile more often, and Jack tried hard to make him. He met with just enough success to keep him trying. He turned it on; he saw how it affected Ianto, but he never noticed the way it affected him. Strange that for all of the times he had been a seducer in truth, he had never noticed the way that a simple meal drew one's attention to the lips.

Jack watched covertly, wanting to be every morsel. "Is there something the matter with your food, Jack?"

It felt like violence to tear his gaze away and focus on his own meal. "No, no! It's great!" he said enthusiastically. "It's just that I... I like watching you eat," he confessed. Ianto came back with that maddening, challenging slight smile again. He leaned forward a little, eyes darkened by the soft light and the wine he had consumed.

"I think I have to correct you," he said softly, his voice almost hypnotising. Jack swallowed. _Oh, yes, please!_ He hoped he hadn't said that out loud. "You like to watch me putting things into my mouth."

Jack flopped back into his chair bonelessly, closing his eyes briefly to savour the image of Ianto doing something so utterly wicked he almost sighed. By the time he opened them again, his usual easy confidence was back, and he grinned across the table. "Are you actually trying to beat me at my own game?"

Ianto only raised a speculative eyebrow. "I really didn't think it would be so easy," he said and then dabbed delicately at his mouth with the napkin. Jack laughed out loud.

"Oh, I've always been easy. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression. I can be hard for you, if that's what you want."

He watched as Ianto struggled for something polite to say, and then saw the moment when he gave up with a sense of self-satisfaction. "Damn!" Ianto muttered to himself, and Jack grinned.

"Ianto Jones." He leaned forward just as Ianto looked up and just let one hand caress him below the chin. "You lost today, kid, but that doesn't mean you have to like it."

There was a look of confusion before Ianto realised where the quote was from, and then he closed his eyes. "Can we get out of here?"

"Sure," Jack said and summoned the ever-present waiter again. "Check, please."

* * *

"Don't we have a film to see?" Ianto said once they were outside in the cool air. They walked along the quiet street, seemingly alone, and Jack smiled when he felt another hand in his, fingers sliding and clasping together in the darkness. The intimacy was all the more real for being unseen.

"Ah... the movie," Jack said, grimacing.

"Just tell me it isn't the Last Crusade. I don't think I could cope with that kind of double meaning." Ianto turned to face him. "I'm not something you need to win, Jack."

"Actually, it's worse than that," Jack confessed. "It's an Alien movie." There was a slight scuffle between them before Jack allowed Ianto to press him against a wall. It was the most touching they had done all evening; hands clasped together, bodies pressed tightly against each other, and Ianto's lips were just a few heartbeats away.

"Can we skip it?" Ianto asked.

Jack licked his lips as if that would encourage Ianto to lean further forward. It did. He could feel the other man's breath on his lips. "Oh, yeah," he whispered, and closed the rest of the distance himself.

They let go of each other's hands to pull each other closer and to touch. He cradled Ianto's head in one hand while he rested another on the other man's hip to press against him. Ianto had a strong arm under his, curling around to his shoulder as though to keep him from getting away. His other hand slid down inside Jack's coat, and then round the back of him, fingertips squeezing so that Jack moaned a little into the kiss.

It felt so good to have this, after watching Ianto eat in the restaurant, forced to behave and to stay in his seat. This is what it was all for; the firm pressure of his lips, the taste of his mouth and the electrifying touch as their tongues brushed against each other.

Was it a fight or a kiss? It seemed like Ianto was trying to crush him, and yet he was sure he was reacting the same way. Hardness pressed into his thigh, and he moved his leg deliberately to encourage it, registering Ianto's growl with a kind of savage delight.

They broke for breath, and it fogged between them, turned slightly orange by the distant street light. It was a warm colour, and Jack leaned in again, just to tenderly sample this time. Oh, he was right! Sweet with wine and hot with desire. Jack drew back again.

"Wow..." He wasn't sure which one of them said it, but it ought to have been him. He said it again, just to make sure. They looked at each other as though drugged, yet the truth was they were both sober, both completely aware of what they were doing.

"Your place or mine, Sir?" Ianto asked wickedly, somehow still faultlessly polite, and Jack felt his body react to the familiar address before he could stop it.

"Call me by name," Jack said, grabbing Ianto's hand again to walk them to the base. No one else would be there now. They would have the entire run of the place to themselves.

"Why?" Now he knew why he had chosen that particular restaurant, even though he'd never been. It was the closest to where he wanted the night to end up.

"Because it's good practice," Jack said, and then turned to look at Ianto very seriously. "When we get in I'm going to go down on my knees before you," he said, and Ianto's eyes darkened still further, "and after ten minutes I'm going to expect you to know my name."

He led Ianto onto the stone that hid them from view and carried on gifting him with that intense look that he had known to work so well in these cases. Ianto was completely under the spell of it... wasn't he?

"Yes, Sir," he said in rebellion as they began to move downwards, smiling slightly as a challenge.

**Author's Note: **Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Comments/constructive criticism appreciated.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author:** Pippychick  
**Fandom: **Torchwood  
**Rating:** M  
**Pairing(s):** Jack/Ianto  
**Summary:** The second chapter of a little one-shot that I couldn't help but write.   
**Disclaimer:** Russell T Davies owns these characters and their world. Please don't sue me for playing with them, mister. They're so pretty. I promise to wash them both down afterwards with hot soapy water and give them back. I make no money out of this. 

**Author's Note:**

This was originally supposed to be a one shot, but I found myself writing what-happens-next anyway. Jack just wouldn't leave me alone, and I'm starting to understand he's quite a persistent devil. g

After saying that I would not censor myself, I have removed some of the more explicit words, and I hope that this continuation now meets with the site requirements.

This hasn't been beta read. If you read, if you enjoy, please leave a comment. It'll take less than thirty seconds of your time – Ianto says so, and he has a stopwatch.

**Dinner, and a Movie – The Continuation**

As they descended, they kissed again, and Ianto was like a drug Jack couldn't get enough of. He closed his eyes to savour it all; the taste, the feel of Ianto pressed close to him, and he let his actions speak for his intentions with all the skill at his command. It should have lasted forever, but nothing could, and in the end he stopped devouring Ianto long enough to see that they had reached the bottom. Ha! He hadn't even noticed it – and neither had Ianto.

"Why'd you stop?" Ianto said blindly, eyes closed, pulling him close enough for another maddening moment of passion before Jack determinedly drew back.

"We're here." He let Ianto go and watched as he almost stumbled from the stone to stare around the hub. Looking for any sign of the others, no doubt. Jack smirked as he followed Ianto closely around the open area.

"Right," Ianto said, and ran a hand through his hair in a motion of distraction. Jack felt so much like the predator as he slowly walked up behind Ianto, and closed his arms around Ianto's body. To his surprise and pleasure, Ianto made no protest, and warm hands suddenly covered his, holding them in position.

It was so sweet. Jack squeezed Ianto in a hug and pressed his face against the back of the other man's neck. He turned his head a little after a moment of this closeness, and now his intention was less pure. He brushed his lips against the little patch of skin below Ianto's ear, knowing exactly the effect it would have when he followed that little movement with a whisper.

"You smell great," he whispered, and actually shocked himself with the admission. Ianto did smell great, and taste good. He was so surprised that he hadn't whispered something irresistible it gave Ianto the moment of time he needed to turn around in Jack's arms so that they were facing each other again. Hmm... kissing distance, and Jack swiftly took advantage of the opportunity. For anyone else, it might have been labelled 'giving in to temptation' but Jack was originally from a far different place.

This was a return of the kiss from outside, only now there was nothing to stop them, and when it broke, Ianto lifted a hand to his lips, staring at Jack as if in shock. They still held each other. They could both feel it. Inevitability. And slowly but surely Jack pushed Ianto backwards.

"Wait!" Ianto panted. Jack only laughed.

"Oo-ohh... too late now, Ianto Jones. I really think you should find something to lean against." To his surprise, Ianto drew himself up to his full height and stared at him as though insulted. No one to Jack's knowledge had ever managed to carry off dignity so well without looking like an idiot.

"I can handle you," he averred, and Jack raised an eyebrow. Immediately he set his hands to work on Ianto's pants, freeing him to touch, fully intending to carry out the activity he had spoken about above ground.

"Maybe you can. But I don't want you complaining to me when you fall and hit your head." Jack looked around them, and then pointed over at his desk. "There."

Ianto moved away to the desk, slow realisation dawning in his eyes as he scrambled back. "Y-you can't mean to... I mean, not straight away!"

Ianto's hands closed around useless objects, flinging them to the floor as he tried to lean backwards over the desk. But Jack didn't loom over him for long before falling to his knees, coat and all. He looked up with a flash of a grin.

"Why not?" He followed his words with the rest of the work on Ianto's clothing, until he had Ianto in his hand. He let his palm slide up and down Ianto a couple of times, slowly, while his prey pressed his lips tightly together. But Ianto was more than ready for what he intended to do.

Looking slightly scandalized, Ianto opened his mouth wide enough to draw in a deep breath. "Well... can't we kiss first?"

"We already did that," Jack pointed out with a smirk.

"Oh..." Ianto said, his face falling a little as though he had given up the argument, "yeah..."

Jack smiled, moistened his lips, and reached up to clasp Ianto's hand. He rubbed his thumb over the palm of that hand in reassurance. "Ready?"

He watched as Ianto closed his eyes and took in another deep breath. "I..." he began hesitantly, and Jack started with a long, leisurely lick in a kind of hello. "Ahh..."

Oh! It was good to hear Ianto lose himself like that! For the next minute or so, Jack went for it, bringing to mind every little trick he knew, and everything he had almost forgotten. Woven into it was his considerable experience, and he treasured it, knowing just who it was who breathed so heavily above him, whose hand it was that rested lightly on his hair. Eventually, he pulled back and looked up. Ianto looked delectable, his eyes closed and his lips forming words that he couldn't speak. This was going to be so good.

"Jack..." Ianto said eventually, opening his eyes in a kind of triumph. "It's Jack..."

He was many things – had been many things, not least of which was a time traveller. He'd lived for centuries, and he liked sex. He liked it rough, sweet, dark, casual, hard, soft and all the million things in-between. He liked men and women. He liked it when it felt good, and he liked it when it hurt. But most of all he liked this. He liked sex when he could laugh, and giggle, and be as light-hearted as possible, because all too soon he had learnt that time would intrude, in one way or another. Now, Jack giggled at Ianto's answer to his earlier challenge. And then he decided to be a little evil. "Good!" he said. "But it's not over yet."

The look on Ianto's face was priceless.

"H-how long, d-did you say?" Ianto asked nervously, so delightful that Jack did something wicked to him as a reward. Ianto gasped.

"Mmm..." Jack pretended to deliberate. "I think I said ten, full, glorious, minutes." A flurry of movement made him look up again. Ianto had stuffed his hand into his suit jacket pocket and was frantically searching for something. He smiled, and then came out with...

The stopwatch!?

"You're timing me!?" Jack managed to splutter incredulously. Perhaps he was, after all, a bit out of practice. He ran his tongue over his lips. It had felt all right to him.

Ianto looked down at him with darkened eyes as though he were a lunatic. "I'm, erm, timing me," he said, obviously just a little embarrassed, and Jack laughed again. For a moment there he had been worried, but he breathed in deeply and rubbed the side of his cheek against Ianto.

"Well, then..." he said, looking up from that position, "just a word of advice. Looking at me? Is going to make it that much harder."

With that he dedicated himself to the task again, planning to relish Ianto for every second that he could. "I'm closing my eyes, then!" Ianto almost shouted, and Jack felt the smile stretching his face as he licked and tormented.

Experience was a definite help in situations like these. Jack knew how to read the signals others gave off. Centuries and lifetimes ago, he had deemed that something important. To win, you had to know when to soothe, when to reassure, when to excite. Now it was something important again – but for different reasons. He could tell every time Ianto came close, and he changed his style to hold the moment off, playing Ianto's body as only a skilled lover could.

Soon, he had Ianto moaning incoherently, legs shaking as he leaned all of his weight against the desk, his body undulating with every movement. In tune with him and whatever he wished to do. Absolutely gorgeous! And then Jack did something very awful. He stopped.

"How long?" he asked softly. Ianto continued to move in front of him, and Jack steadied him by placing his hands on Ianto's hips.

"Uhh..." Ianto said in reply.

"Ianto! How long!" Jack snapped in a commanding tone of voice, registering the way Ianto scrambled to obey with only a touch of guilt and a little more amusement.

"..uhh... erm... oh, God," Ianto whimpered breathlessly as he found the stopwatch and checked it. "Six minutes, forty five... forty six..."

Jack took the luxury of a moment or two to enjoy the way Ianto looked as he stayed knelt before him. Of course, this is what he had stopped for. His hands ran soothingly up and down the front of Ianto's thighs. "Fifty one." Ianto said it like a plea, looking down into Jack's eyes for mercy perhaps. There was a time he would have enjoyed withholding it for the sense of power. "Fifty two." Those days were gone.

At last he began again, and the endless litany of numbers became wordless moans as he put all of his considerable talent to work to win the game. Ianto really never did stand a chance.

"Was it good for you?" he asked a short minute or so later, once they were both laid on his coat on the floor of the office. His hands idly traced meaninless patterns over bare skin, as he'd taken advantage of Ianto's state to take off his jacket and undo his shirt. Ianto frowned suddenly.

"Juh..." he said, and then shook his head. "Sir..."

"Yeah, I know..." Jack replied softly. Then to himself he added: "they always say they'll remember."

"Jack..." Well, that was a surprise! He smiled at Ianto and leaned on him a little. Very, very cute. Begging for a kiss, in fact. Well, not quite begging, but that could be arranged. Jack teased Ianto's lips with his own, keeping the kiss deliberately light. Sweet. The future was an unknown quantity, but he hoped there was at least a little of Ianto in it. He hoped there was a little of all of them. He had always been a very physical person, even when his heart had been colder.

Ianto was responding to the kiss, and Jack gave more of himself to it as well, feeding his lust and fire. He wanted the closeness to say so many things. _Know me this way, and let me know you. _Ianto groaned a little, and Jack smiled against his lips as the kiss continued. _We have time together, let us enjoy it in the best possible way. Let me appreciate you. Appreciate me._

When he drew back, Ianto lay still for a moment with his eyes closed, but he reached out to touch, and Jack sighed happily. "Now, I am going to take you to my bed and wear you out," he whispered, feeling his own neglected need calling to him and anticipating the pleasure.

"Jack?" His voice was stronger now, and he looked at Ianto in surprise, who seemed to have recovered very well – and quickly. Worth noting for future reference. Jack duly noted it.

"Um?" he asked vaguely, storing this new piece of Ianto information somewhere important in his brain. Ianto turned away, and when he came back, he held the stopwatch. Jack only stared, still completely clueless, as Ianto depressed the button to make it start again and handed it to him.

"You're not going to last ten minutes either… Sir," Ianto promised with a very definite twinkle in his eyes, and Jack laughed as Ianto set about proving himself right.

Well, damn!

**Author's Note:** Thank you for reading – I hope you enjoyed it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author:** Pippychick  
**Fandom:**Torchwood  
**Rating:** M  
**Pairing(s):** Jack/Ianto  
**Summary:** As the late, great Douglas Adams might have said, this is the third chapter of a little one-shot that I couldn't help but write.  
**Disclaimer:** Russell T Davies owns these characters and their world. Please don't sue me for playing with them, mister. They're so pretty. I promise to wash them both down afterwards with hot soapy water and give them back. I make no money out of this.

**Author's Note:**

Well, Jack just won't shut up. I'm wary of calling this an Epilogue, because I'll end up being proved wrong. But if I can finish this, I have another story idea that actually has a plot, if Jack will deign to get involved in that one.

This hasn't been beta read, and it's shorter than previous chapters. It's also the only part I've written from Ianto's POV. If you read, if you enjoy, please leave a comment to let me know. Thank you :)

**Dinner, and a Movie – The Morning After**

Ianto was almost fooled. He half-smiled somewhere between waking and sleeping where he lay curled up next to a warm, naked body. He raised a hand and encountered a flat, hard chest where a woman's softness should be. It wasn't Lisa. After all this time, he still hankered after her, and the familiar crushing sense of loss accompanied him into consciousness.

"Good morning," a deep voice said as he opened his eyes, and he had no time to take in his surroundings before he was being pressed back into the warm pillows, hungry lips tasting him before he could even swallow. Instinctively he fought against it, and pushed Jack away from him with a scowl.

"Wow... Are you always this grumpy in the morning?" Ianto dared to breathe and open his eyes again. Here he was, in Jack's bed in the hub. He let the memories of the night before wash in to his mind, and was surprised to feel the pain lessen with it.

"I'm not grumpy," he replied with a heavy sigh.

"Oh!" Jack said happily, taking his statement at face value. "Okay!" And before he could say anything else he was covered by a great load of muscle again.

"Hey!" Ianto shouted, more coherent this time as he got Jack off him. "I just need a minute," he said, hold up a finger as a warning. "One. Minute," and then covered his eyes with his hands as he yawned inconspicuously. He uncovered his face and looked at Jack, half ready for him to pounce again. "What time is it?"

Jack somehow managed to shrug nonchalantly, even though he was half buried in pillows and resting on one of his elbows. "About eight forty-five," he said, looking around vaguely at the blank walls and ceiling. "I really need to get a clock in here."

"What!" Ianto felt his heart miss a beat. So late! "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"Well..." Jack said softly, "we were a bit energetic last night, and you looked so peaceful." He turned onto his back and folded his arms, looking belligerent. "I really thought you could do with the rest. I mean, do you ever take a day off?" His tone had begun considerate and ended on a note of accusation. Ianto shook his head, completely bewildered.

"Yes, Jack," he shot back. "It's called sunday, and that was just three days ago." Only one thing could account for letting him sleep this long. Only one. "Did you fall asleep?"

Jack turned back onto his side seemingly just to look. "I lay really still and didn't think for a while. Does that count? Oh!" He smiled. "And I played with your hair." He reached forward and his fingers curled around the back of Ianto's neck. "You know, you've got an adorable little curl just –"

"Stop it!" Ianto shouted. His heart hadn't slowed any, and he was beginning to be afraid he wouldn't get out of this. Tosh was usually early. She could arrive at any minute. And Gwen... though they didn't really need to worry about Owen. He didn't know what the morning was for either. In that he and Jack seemed similar.

"Definitely not grumpy in the morning, huh?" Jack asked with a kind of annoying sarcasm.

"Jack." Ianto was trying to keep his temper. "This isn't morning. This is known as the time just before everyone walks in and finds me naked in bed with the boss. Tell me. How do you think that looks?"

Jack smirked. "Inevitable?" Ianto glared at him, and then sat up, getting on his knees to peer out of the hole.

"Where are my clothes?" he said, wondering what he had done with them the night before, and fearing he had left them strewn all over the floor. "I need clothes!"

His eyes encountered a chair placed just outside Jack's sleeping area. On it was a perfectly folded suit. Crisp white shirt on a hanger at the back. Even his shoes were there, and they were shiny. "I didn't do that," Ianto said in confusion.

"No," Jack said from the bed behind him, hands crossed behind his head. "I did. Once you were asleep."

All of Ianto's anger drained away, and he flopped back down onto the bed heavily, leaning over to look down at Jack. "What am I going to do with you?" he asked quietly. Jack's eyes twinkled as he quite clearly and deliberately checked Ianto out.

"I'll write you a list," he suggested, and the hell of it was that he looked serious. Ianto struggled not to laugh, and was aware that only a slight smile escaped him.

"Hmm..." he said, considering. "Well, you can have it for christmas, I suppose." He dipped his head and kissed Jack briefly on the lips, and he was almost prepared for it when Jack caught him and held him close.

"I can be good until then," Jack promised, "really good," managing to put more meaning into the words than they should hold. This time Jack initiated a kiss, and Ianto pulled back a moment or two later.

"Eight forty-five, Jack," he said as a reminder, shaking his head. "Probably more like nine o'clock now. And I need a shower." The look of disappointment on Jack's face was almost comical. "You'll have to wake me earlier next time," he said as he got up and climbed out of the space that held Jack's bed to pick up his clothes.

"Next time...?" The Captain's voice echoed from behind him, and Ianto smiled while Jack couldn't see it.

"I'll email you the list then, shall I?" Jack called out. Ianto smiled again as he walked away towards the shower, relieved he hadn't been seen, and wondering just what Jack had in mind for that list.

**Author's Note: **Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Please do consider leaving a comment.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author:** pippychick  
**Fandom:** Torchwood  
**Rating:** M  
**Pairing(s):** Jack/Ianto  
**Summary:** At least one of the things on Jack's list is not quite what it seems. And it seems strange enough.  
**Disclaimer:** Russell T Davies owns these characters and their world. Please don't sue me for playing with them, mister. They're so pretty that I couldn't help it. I promise to wash them both down afterwards with hot soapy water and give them back. I make no money out of this.

**Author's Note:**

Hi again, everyone. I said I wasn't going to write anything else, and told myself that the list Jack referred to was just for fun effect. And yet here I am, having written something else for these two.

Jack has something particular in mind for one item on the list. Kudos for whoever can identify subtle references to both Twin Peaks and Douglas Adams.

Hopefully, this is funny. I know I laughed a few times while writing it. Jack just feels so nice to write. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

**The List**

It was another one of those ordinary days they weren't supposed to get. Jack was leaned against Tosh's desk while she rambled on about the species database, and how she had improved it while he had been away. It was actually very interesting. Toshiko was a genius, and Jack was listening, but he was also watching Ianto. Just thinking about him made Jack take a sip of the coffee he was holding. Good coffee.

Currently, Ianto was wandering around the hub with a clipboard. He kept looking at different things, then looking back at whatever was on his list like some kind of interior designer. Ha! There! He noticed when Ianto made his way over to them, his eyes checking out certain places. And he kept looking Jack's way.

"Problem, Ianto?" Jack asked pleasantly, laughing inside. Ianto did that cute dancing around the point thing when he spoke.

"No, well. No. Except – this list," Ianto said. Jack nodded encouragingly. "Not a problem as such, but..."

"Yeah?" Jack challenged, knowing Ianto couldn't say it. Not in front of Tosh and the others. They caught each other's eye, and Ianto straightened up even more, if that was possible. He almost smiled, and Jack knew he was about to lose the game somehow.

"Number thirteen," Ianto said politely, and Jack turned to Tosh.

"Erm, sorry... back in a minute," he said, excusing himself. "You carry on. It's great!" So saying he walked away to his office, forcing Ianto to follow him. As he had gambled, Ianto didn't begin to speak again until they were stood facing each other with the door closed.

"You haven't gone into detail," he said with a raised eyebrow, glancing back down at the clipboard, "which is surprising in itself, but I don't think we have any Bezalean sea lizards in stock, Sir. I really don't think the speciality fish market will have any either."

Jack wanted to smile. None of the others got Ianto's sense of humour. They thought he didn't have one. Yes, he wanted to smile, but instead he put on his look of mock outrage at the suggestion. "Ianto, please!" he said, grabbing the man's arms dramatically just because he could and he wanted to. "You mean the pet store. It has to be alive."

"Alive!?" Ianto spluttered, and he really was shocked. There was no faking that. Jack smiled in brilliant victory. "But you've written here it's an aphrodisiac," he said, glancing down at the list to make sure. Jack winked.

"It is." They stared at each other. Eventually, Jack let go of Ianto's arms and backed off, but he watched as Ianto's imagination went to work, and his eyes softened in amusement.

"Well, I don't see any," Ianto said at last, and there was just a tiny bit of relief there if you knew how to listen. "That's the issue."

Shrugging, Jack sighed. "I sort of thought one might, you know, fall through."

"The rift? We get the things that people lose or throw away, Jack. This is where the biros end up. What are the chances of someone carrying one of these lizard things around?"

Laughing, Jack reached out and pulled Ianto towards him. "Oh, you'd be surprised," he said, actually quite serious. There was a lot Ianto didn't know. Sometimes he just forgot. "And I'd love to surprise you," he finished suggestively.

"Oh, kay," Ianto said carefully, freeing himself from Jack's grip as his eyes flickered through the glass walls to make sure no one had been watching them. "What else do I need to know about our glittering future?"

Jack shook his head and thought for a moment, full of nostalgia. "Free love, Ianto... I _really_ miss that."

"I wasn't under the impression you were paying for it here, Sir." He looked up quickly, but Ianto was deliberately misunderstanding him in order to tease. He should pay for that.

"Aww..." he said softly, smiling, "and I didn't know that you loved me."

Ianto bristled. "I don't."

"I love you too," Jack said, ignoring the denial and leaning forward to kiss Ianto on the forehead. "For free."

"Right," Ianto said crisply, and Jack realised he was uncomfortable with emotion. It came so easily to him he didn't even need to think about it, but he wasn't upset by Ianto's reaction. Actually, he thought it was sort of sweet. "Well, you're going to have to do it without number thirteen. Hmm," Ianto deliberated, "it's unlucky anyway."

"No, it isn't," Jack said without thinking. "They worked that out in 2351." Ianto just stared at him.

"In three and half centuries time, they figure out that the number thirteen isn't unlucky?" he asked in disbelief. Jack nodded slowly, wondering if he had upset anything by letting it slip. He had learnt it at school, in ancient history. "Well, I am now filled with hope for the future of scientific achievement. And here I was fearing a slow down in new discoveries."

"It was all something to do with low-level telepathy, passed on from generation to generation," Jack explained patiently. "It was a great breakthrough at the time. I wasn't even born then." He considered that statement, and knew he was frowning.

"Jack?" There was concern in Ianto's voice, and Jack realised he was holding his head.

"I wasn't born," he repeated. "Yet," he added. "Ouch." Arms closed around him and he breathed in Ianto's scent as he let his hands rest on the other man's waist.

"Be here, now, with me," Ianto suggested, and Jack nodded, bringing the terrible sense of approaching time under control. All that mattered was now. He heard the door open, and he looked up just in time to catch Owen rolling his eyes.

"Call coming through," he informed them matter-of-factly, and he and Ianto both rushed out of the office.

"Tosh?" Jack questioned.

"The police are calling us in," she replied, staring at the species database on her screen. "They've found a warehouse full of stolen goods, but they've sealed the area. They're saying that among everything else, there's some strange kind of luminous fish there, alive in a jar."

"Ha!" Jack almost shouted, doing everything but jump for joy, rushing over to Tosh. "Yes!" Ianto followed him more sedately, and he turned only to seize Ianto's upper arms dramatically again, because he could and he wanted to.

"See?" he said happily. "Thirteen! Not unlucky."

"No..." Ianto replied slowly, his face expressionless, "not for some." For a moment Jack stared, completely taken aback, not certain he had heard correctly. Then he laughed. Wow! They had been right, and the number thirteen thing wouldn't be discovered until 2351 no matter what Jack said. He shook his head to clear it and let Ianto go. They had work to do now.

"Ok! Tosh, Gwen, Owen. You're gonna need sunglasses. And don't kill it. Trust me, it's not dangerous. Well... it's not dangerous," he said firmly. He checked the screen to find the address and got his coat.

"Ianto," he said without looking, "we'll need a shallow vat of saline water, about two point five percent, at twenty five degrees Celsius. PH 7.5."

"Yes, Sir." Jack looked around, and Ianto was noting the requirements on his clipboard.

"That easy, huh?" he asked, slightly amazed at Ianto's efficiency. Ianto only smiled politely.

"This is nothing. Remember that time once when you asked me for a tub of silt?"

"That wasn't so hard," Jack said in confusion. "And it took you a week," he accused with a little bit of disapproval. Ianto stared back at him, completely deadpan.

"You wanted it from the middle of the Dead Sea."

Jack laughed a little, and managed to stop himself from stroking the soft skin of his face. "Oh... well, yeah..."

The others were ready, sunglasses abounded. "We'll be back," Jack promised.

"Jack," Ianto said sharply, preventing him from leaving. "Six, seven, and nineteen."

"What about them?" he asked, waving the others on to the underground garage.

"Impossible," Ianto informed him, shaking his head.

Jack smirked. "Not with me."

Ianto looked faintly incredulous. "Really?" Jack folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe to better enjoy the moment.

"Did you check the attachments?" He saw the effect of that in Ianto's eyes. He hadn't checked, because if he had, he would have come across the diagrams. He watched as Ianto's eyes flickered across to the nearest terminal. "Have fun," he said with a grin before walking off to catch up with everyone else.

* * *

It took effort to open his eyes, but he did it. Somehow they had made it back to his bed space in the main part of the Hub. "If I'm ever going to sleep again, it will be now," he said with a satisfied groan. Ianto stirred in his arms tiredly. They were so close he could feel Ianto's heartbeat. It felt warm. Nice. Cuddly.

"You wake me in the morning," Ianto said, his voice muffled as he spoke into Jack's hair. "Erry..." Jack guessed that Ianto meant to say early.

"Fun, wasn't it?" Jack said, managing to hold off a yawn. Well! Maybe he really would sleep. Ianto twitched. "What?"

There was a heartfelt sigh from his partner. "Itch," he said, moving his head so that Jack could hear his relaxed, breathy voice. "Left leg, near my hip."

"Okay," Jack said, wondering if he could remember how his arms worked. Eventually, he managed to get a hand there. "Here?"

"Mmm..." Ianto said, snuggling into his shoulder.

He tried, but his fingertips were not up to scratching at anything, and he just grazed his nails over the skin. Ianto giggled, and Jack did too. It was the first time he had ever heard Ianto giggle, and it proved to him that nothing was impossible.

"Did we really...?" Ianto asked softly, and Jack tried to nod, and ended up rubbing his cheek against the pillows. He moaned.

"Oh, yeah. We did." He meant to carry on talking, and explain about the aphrodisiac and restorative properties of the sea lizard. It was all in the light. And you had to be in the water with it, so now they were nice and clean as well. Some moments later, Jack realised he was going through this in his head, instead of out loud. "Oops," he said with a little laugh.

"What?" Ianto asked.

"Just thinking," Jack replied. They lay together for a couple of minutes, and Jack very nearly drifted off, but not quite.

"What's that?" Ianto asked, and slowly, Jack followed the line of his sight to a rectangle of brown. It looked familiar. Then he had it.

"Oh, it was tied to the jar. Some kind of card," he explained, managing to raise just enough energy to reach for it and flop back down onto the bed. Ianto snuggled up to him again, and Jack smiled, draping his free arm around Ianto's shoulders. He liked this. A lot.

"What does it say?" Ianto questioned, trying to stifle a yawn and not succeeding at all. Jack focused his eyes on the card carefully. Four words.

"'Have fun, eye candy,'" he read carefully. He sighed. It didn't mean anything. Just something that fell through the rift.

"Oh!" Ianto said. He sounded slightly astonished, and Jack looked at him, but his eyes were closed. Next, there was a quiet snore.

"I'll wake you up," Jack promised, clutching the card in his hand. He might not be able to sleep after all, but he could rest. He closed his eyes with a happy sigh and savoured the way Ianto clung to him. It was warm, comfortable and perfect. They had to do this again. Although, in the morning, he would have to tell Ianto about the very real dangers of Bezalean sea lizard addiction. Whoever lost it might not have minded it being lost so much. Jack gulped, imagining the reaction.

Oh, dear.

**Author's Note: **Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Comments welcome and will encourage me to write more.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author:** pippychick  
**Fandom:** Torchwood  
**Rating:** M  
**Pairing(s):** Jack/Ianto  
**Summary:** At least one of the things on Jack's list is not quite what it seems. And it seems strange enough.  
**Disclaimer:** Russell T Davies owns these characters and their world. Please don't sue me for playing with them, mister. They're so pretty that I couldn't help it. I promise to wash them both down afterwards with hot soapy water and give them back. I make no money out of this.

**Author's Note:**

Well, here we are again. I don't know if anyone reads these notes, but I'll happily ramble on for just a moment or two of your time anyway if you're paying attention. You're probably figuring this out for yourselves as we go along, but all of my plots turn to smut. I'm really trying to keep it within the M rating for this site, though I think I'll be concurrently writing a much dirtier version for other places.

I also want to thank all of my fantastic reviewers: Reefgirl, senseofpeace, StarGirl995, Caz Malfoy, vsbg0727, AMM3485, Penelope Tweede, Faramirlover, babs6608, and evilpinkbutterfly101. That's been long overdue, and I just want you all to know that not only do I appreciate each and every one of you, but that also between you, you've brought this into existence. In silence, I might have ignored Jack's whispers after the first couple of chapters.

Anyway, besides that I just want to say that I was never expecting the level of response I've had, and for that I'm grateful and happy. But it makes me nervous, since now I feel a need to impress you, however I hope you enjoy this chapter, which is a shameless slashy Jack/Ianto interlude. I enjoyed writing it. I couldn't help but include a tiny bit of office fetish type fluff. And I also hope I got the Welsh right.

And congratulations go to Reefgirl for seeing the Douglas Adams reference. If there's anything you'd like to see, pm me to let me know and I'll try and fit it in somewhere. :)

ETA: Having massive probs with my pc, which keeps getting the blue screen of death, then saying "disk read error" when I try to reboot. I'm getting really tired of recovering office documents :( I shall try to keep disruption to a minimum, but I can't promise anything at all. It's somewhat beyond me.

**The Morning Afterwards (2)**

Oh, he liked mornings like these; there really hadn't been enough of them in his life yet, and Jack Harkness had already lived a longer life than most. Someone was enjoying him, which meant he had no need to move a muscle upon waking, and he opened his eyes with a smile and a lazy groan. "Mmnh..." he said, and cast his glance down to see who was kissing his right nipple. It was Ianto. Jack grinned down at him. "Hi," he said warmly.

For a second, Ianto stopped what he was doing to look up. "Morning," he said in return, and Jack raised his eyebrows and let it happen.

"Now this is what I call not being grumpy in the morning," he murmured, so as not to put Ianto off. "Nice." He couldn't stay this still for long, and he really wanted to participate, but as soon as he tried to move he knew there was something very wrong. Jack did something incredibly athletic that involved half sitting up in the bed to twist around and see the handcuffs that were somehow keeping his wrists on the bed above his head.

"Oh! Erm..." Jack said with a twinge of foreboding, remembering how that first morning had gone. "_Not_ grumpy, right?" he asked Ianto, who due to Jack's movement had slipped down his chest and was currently pressing a kiss to the skin above his navel. Quick as a flash, Ianto moved up again, and this time those lips were pressed against his for a brief moment.

"It's early," Ianto confirmed as reassurance, that smile in his eyes that never showed itself on his face. Jack flopped down with a rather overly dramatic sigh of relief, and the smile in Ianto's eyes danced. "It's also sunday," he continued, kissing Jack again. "No work."

Despite the restraint, Jack stretched his entire body with a loud and satisfied moan. Even his fingers and toes stretched out, and he relaxed with another lazy smile. "I've been asleep!" he commented for no reason at all. "I feel good!"

He found himself inundated with a very definitely not grumpy Ianto, and his lips touched the side of his employee's neck as Ianto nibbled at his ear. He couldn't move his arms, and he was almost smothered by the other man's bodyweight. Jack was in his very own personal version of Heaven. "You're energetic too," he noted, and then was suddenly taken by the urge to bite Ianto's neck. "I thought the sea lizard might have tired you out," he said when he had finished and licked the mark lavishly. "My first time I slept for hours."

"It must be a reaction you have," Ianto said to him, his voice laden with desire. "I mean, I woke up and you were sound asleep –" He finished speaking rather too abruptly, and he pulled back to look at Jack with darkened eyes.

"And?" Jack asked, wondering what Ianto hadn't said.

"Kind of delicious," Ianto confirmed, and bent his head to lick at Jack's neck while Jack laughed deeply.

"Yeah, and I didn't have nightmares," Jack realised as Ianto fell to tormenting his nipples again. "Strange." He jolted his body to try and dislodge Ianto, and it didn't work. He was completely at Ianto's mercy. "So! What's with these?" he asked, rattling the cuffs good naturedly, thinking that it was all rather wonderful. "What are we playing?

Ianto looked up at him and actually smirked. Jack felt his eyes widen in amazement.

"Shh," he said, and his hand did something wicked to a part of Jack that he would remember for a long time to come.

"You're catching that smirk from me," Jack said breathlessly, talking as soon as he could think again. "Don't show it to the others," he advised, "they'll never understand." Ianto suddenly stopped everything and sat up by the side of him in the bed.

"Ok, I have to be serious now," Ianto said carefully, as if reminding himself.

"Oh, don't," Jack said. "Please. I promise I'll be quiet." He turned a molten gaze on Ianto but the other man wasn't looking at him, and Jack sighed.

"Jack. That sea lizard came from your old friend, Captain John, or whoever he is," Ianto said, with a weird kind of emphasis on the word friend, and Jack had no reason to disbelieve him. He sounded certain enough, and somehow Jack wasn't surprised to learn it. He knew what he had to face today, and wondered if there was any chance he could put it off. While he was thinking, Ianto continued talking. "I know this because he called me that name when he came to get the final cannister from you."

The last of the statement entered Jack's mind, and he frowned. "Called you what?" he asked. Ianto looked at him as if expecting something from the revelation.

"Eye candy," he said. Jack was sure no one had ever uttered those words so seriously. Where had he heard that before? Recently? Oh! Yes. The card with the jar.

"Oh? And you didn't tell me?" Jack asked, teasing, sensing what Ianto wanted out of it, but not exactly why.

"I didn't think it was relevant at the time, Sir," Ianto replied, and Jack nodded, still wondering what was happening beneath the conversation. You didn't live for over a hundred years without getting good at reading people.

"Fair enough," he said, and then it clicked. " Ah-ha!" he exclaimed, eyes leaping to Ianto. He obviously expected some kind of petty display of angry jealousy. "So that's why the...?" He rattled the cuffs and directed Ianto a questioning glance.

"Yes," Ianto said, "that's why the –" In the midst of his triumph, Jack was so very disappointed.

"And here I thought you just wanted to take me," he said, breaking in before Ianto could finish speaking. "Hard and merciless, like administrators everywhere." Jack sighed with a certain amount of longing, and Ianto looked at him, incredulous.

"What?" Jack demanded, wishing Ianto would stop looking shocked and look like he was considering it. It really was a waste of a perfectly good bondage session. "What do you think I am, old-fashioned?"

There was no escaping seriousness however, and Jack turned his mind to what had been revealed. "But it makes sense," he continued thoughtfully. "He knew it would end up here," Jack said, meaning Torchwood, "and he knows me." Jack looked at Ianto as though he were breakfast, and almost smirked. "He also knew exactly what I would do with it."

They looked at each other, and Ianto licked his lips. Jack narrowed his eyes a little and tossed his head ever so slightly. He smiled when Ianto gave in to the invisible summons and kissed him. "Anyway," Ianto said after a couple of minutes. "I think there might be something wrong with it. He didn't exactly strike me as the gift giving type."

"No. He's not," Jack said, troubled, knowing he was going to have to come clean about the whole Bezalean sea lizard addiction thing. It was going to be difficult to explain.

"You know something," Ianto noted immediately. Oh, he was so sharp! Ianto observed everything and missed nothing. Usually, it was something Jack valued in him. Jack tried to look innocent, aware that he was still in handcuffs.

"No, I don't," Jack said, shaking his head.

"I know what your lies look like," Ianto said with a raised eyebrow. Jack gazed back at him steadily.

"Oh?" he replied. "What do they look like?" he asked, curious, wondering if there was some way he could improve upon them.

"They look like the truth." Ianto looked down at him, his face expressionless.

"Ah..." Jack said, sensing victory, "so how can you tell the difference between me lying, and me telling the truth?"

"I can't." Ianto waited a second or two, then smiled.

For a moment Jack thought about it, and then realised that by arguing the point, he had given himself away. "Ooohh... clever," he said with a little laugh. "That's one of the things I like about you, Ianto Jones."

"Thank you, Sir."

Jack sighed. He was going to have to do it. "I was going to tell you anyway. Bezalean sea lizards are a little bit – not dangerous – well, not dangerous, just not exactly harmless."

"What do they do?" Ianto asked, in full efficient Torchwood mode. Jack wouldn't have been surprised if Ianto had produced a digital voice recorder from somewhere. And here he was still in handcuffs. He wondered vaguely if he had put anything anywhere in the employment contract about interrogating the boss. Surely he hadn't been careless enough to miss that bit out?

"Well," he said, staring at the ceiling of the bed space, wondering which was the best way to put it. "They do what any good lover does."

"Which is?" Ianto urged.

Jack turned his head and smiled meaningfully at Ianto. "They make you want more of them." He didn't add that the sheer opportunity of having Ianto in the presence of one had been enough to keep him from uttering any kind of warning the day before, but after what they had experienced, he guessed Ianto already knew that.

"Is that it?" Ianto asked, looking a little let down.

"Isn't that enough?" Jack saw that Ianto still didn't understand exactly what he meant. "How much use will we be in a week, Ianto, if neither one of us says stop?" He saw Ianto frown and shrug.

"I'll say stop," he claimed in certainty. Jack shook his head.

"Oh, yeah? Try it, then," he challenged. "I say you let me out of these cuffs, and we'll go down there together and you can say stop."

He watched as Ianto considered doing exactly that, and saw that inevitable moment where Ianto realised he couldn't do it. For once, Jack had to admit it wasn't because he was irresistible. It was the lizard. "Oh, God," he said softly. "You're right."

"We need to send it on it's way," Jack said wistfully, "somehow."

"Can't we kill it?" Ianto questioned.

"Erm... not really. Ianto? How much do you remember?" Just saying that conjured an image for him of what Ianto was likely to be remembering. Darkness and warm water lit by luminous flashes of green and pink light; hot, slippery skin against his. Those first minutes were pure violence, and it was Ianto first. He waited, even though he knew better, for that moment when it would hurt as Ianto took him, one arm tight around his waist to keep him still. All things were even in the water, and he couldn't break free from that grip – not that he wanted to. But it didn't hurt and it could never. Not there.

And then, a little later, when it was his turn, and they stood together in the warmth. He had Ianto's leg over his arm, and it was impossible that he should be so flexible, and yet it happened. He mastered that body for so long, moaning as he placed sloppy, open-mouthed kisses on Ianto's chin, who was stood there with his head thrown back in such abandoned pleasure.

It went on and on. So many times, each more intense than the last until they slowed, just barely moving against each other in a kind of lazy lust and sheer instinct. They were hardly human, just animals reacting to chemicals and pheromones. And all the while the light pulsed around them in flashes, making it happen in the dark, in the water.

He had been the first to climb out, and he had fallen to his knees on the floor outside of the tank in sheer exhaustion before somehow raising the strength to pull Ianto out too. They'd helped each other up the stairs – God only knew how. There was no pain, and no soreness, but their bodies knew the extent of the energy they had expended. So tired. But Ianto had been beyond fantastic.

With a decisive shake of his head, Jack brought himself back to the present, and he saw his own memories in Ianto's eyes. "Yeah, that's what I thought," he said softly, still filled with disappointment because Ianto looked so serious, and suddenly he had a very evil urge.

"Why? What else happened?" Ianto questioned him severely, and Jack decided to do it.

"You can't remember," he said with a perfectly timed sigh, "but when I introduced you, you were extremely polite." Jack waited for his words to sink in. Sentient life. Ianto went pale.

"You're kidding," Ianto said, almost lifeless in shock. No doubt he was mortified at the thought of doing something so personal in front of another being, lizard or not.

"Yeah," Jack said with a sudden wicked smile, not wanting to let it go on any longer. "I am. I... I just wanted to see your face." Suddenly Ianto got up and clambered out of the bed space. He didn't say another word.

"Ianto?" Jack called out. "I said I was kidding! Hey!" There was no answer. "Cuffs! Come on!"

A voice floated down to him from above as Ianto walked around in his office. "Not funny, Jack."

Nothing else was forthcoming, and after a couple of minutes struggling against the cuffs, Jack called out again. "Help!"

Through the gap he saw Ianto walk past, he had put on black socks and a deep burgundy shirt fluttered around his thighs. "It's sunday," he said coldly as he walked past without looking down. Jack thought about that for a moment or two.

"Tosh?" he shouted hopefully.

Ianto walked past the gap again, this time his shirt was tucked into immaculately pressed black trousers, and his shiny black shoes clipped on the wooden floor as precise as gunshots. "It's early," Ianto advised him, his voice devoid of emotion.

There was only one thing left to try, and as the word left his lips, Jack was astonished to find he truly meant it. "Sorry?"

The sound of Ianto walking around stopped. "Dydy hi ddim yn deg..." Ianto murmured to himself, and then there was silence.

He waited so long for any other kind of reaction, he thought Ianto had gone and left him. Then, suddenly, Ianto crouched down, looking through the gap directly at him. Now he was wearing his jacket, and a tie, along with a cute little waistcoat... Damn, he looked good in a suit! "How sorry?" Ianto asked, looking slightly troubled.

Jack tried his very best to look contrite, and tempting. "Extremely sorry," he said, meaning it completely. Ianto stared, and Jack cleared his throat. "And somewhat helpless."

Something in Ianto's eyes softened, and Jack smiled. "Come on, office boy," he said, using one of Owen's names for Ianto, gambling that it would work. "Let me go, and I'll show you how sorry I am." Jack saw the momentary twinkle of humour in Ianto's eyes and it made him want to melt.

"I'm not an office boy," Ianto negated without a flicker of emotion, never breaking the eye contact. "I'm an administrator."

"Oh, really?" Jack asked with a flirtatious little laugh as Ianto climbed down, testing the cuffs again just to make sure he really was helpless. Yep. Even after this long, life was good.

**Author's Note: **Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Comments welcome and will encourage me to write more.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author:** pippychick  
**Fandom:** Torchwood  
**Rating:** M  
**Pairing(s):** Jack/Ianto  
**Summary:** At least one of the things on Jack's list is not quite what it seems. And it seems strange enough.  
**Disclaimer:** Russell T Davies owns these characters and their world. Please don't sue me for playing with them, mister. They're so pretty that I couldn't help it. I promise to wash them both down afterwards with hot soapy water and give them back. I make no money out of this.

**Author's Note:**

Hello, people! How are you? My tonsillitis has finally more or less gone, which means that today I get to go back to work. But don't worry, I'm sure I'll be dreaming of the continuation to this throughout. You're going to get a bit of Tosh in the next chapter.

Thank you to my wonderful reviewers on the last chapter: Egyptianautumn, Thedoctorshope900, and Penelope Tweede. I followed your advice and wrote just for myself, which means that I was up until 2am last night writing smutty comedy. I hope I haven't got carried away, and that this is still within the M rating gulps

Anyway! I hope you enjoy it. I did. So did Jack, Ianto... and someone else.

Warning for mature content, as if you hadn't already gathered. Also if you haven't caught the new series yet - HERE BE SPOILERS.

**Coffee Addiction**

Somewhere in the depths of the hub was a kitchen, and this was where Jack currently sat with his first cup of coffee. He took a sip and then sighed happily. He could relax around Ianto in a way he couldn't in front of the others. Not yet, anyway. Give it time, and really, he had a lot of time. "You make really good coffee," he said as a way to put off the inevitable conversation about Bezalean sea lizards. "Have I ever told you that?"

"Yes, you have, Sir," Ianto replied, hands wrapped loosely around his own mug where he sat opposite Jack at the table, once more immaculate in his suit. "You wrote me a letter."

"I did?" Ianto almost seemed to flinch, and his lips tightened as if he wanted to speak. "Am I missing something?" Jack prodded with a slight smile.

With a silent sigh, Ianto looked away slightly to the left as if recalling a memory. "At my interview you introduced yourself, smiled, shook my hand and then asked me if I wanted a coffee. When I said yes you very helpfully showed me where the machine was."

Jack laughed. "Oh, yeah!" he said, and took another sip of his coffee, quite unable to keep the grin from his face. "I remember that!" Ianto looked directly at him, and his grin faded a little. "I'd done lots of interviews that day," he said, trying to excuse himself. "My throat was getting really –"

"You said in your letter," Ianto declared, looking away again, "and I quote: 'Nice coffee. Congratulations.' You then went on to tell me all about the facilities here, including the size and capacity of your machine."

"Hm-mm..." Jack said into his cup, trying his damnedest not to laugh, knowing everything the letter had said. "Did I?"

"You also said you liked my suit," Ianto said pointedly, and Jack snorted.

"Is it too much to hope that you actually read my CV?" Ianto sounded suspiciously emotional, perhaps even slightly annoyed. "Or checked my references?" Of course, he would have done a lot of work on those to hide his past with Torchwood One and any relationship with the then missing Lisa, and Jack forced himself to look serious.

"Of course I did. I checked with all of your previous employers," he said firmly. Ianto appeared to be slightly mollified. They sat in silence for a minute or two, drinking their coffee.

Daring a glance, Jack found Ianto looked entirely too serious, and he couldn't stop himself from carrying on. "Obviously, as soon as I found out that every single one of them missed your coffee, I –"

"Jack!" Ianto snapped, and Jack had the good sense to stop.

"Sorry. Just playing. I really wasn't lying about the machine, though," he added devilishly. There it was. Ianto's eyes twinkled just a little bit, seeing the humour of the situation. He'd lied to Jack all along, and now he was doing the job he applied for in truth. Something crossed Jack's mind as he took another sip of his coffee.

"I don't suppose you would have taken the position if...? You know…" he let his words trail off, looking at Ianto closely.

"No, I wouldn't." Ianto replied, meeting his eyes, and Jack asked himself what he had expected. He looked down into his mug suddenly, a little dissatisfied. "And I would have missed something," Ianto said eventually, making him look up again. He didn't mean the work. They smiled at each other. Nothing else, just a smile.

"So would I," Jack said meaningfully. He didn't do meaningfully all that often. For Ianto he had done it twice in one morning. And a Sunday no less. Perhaps it was a new record. He found himself wondering just what Ianto had done in the past.

"After all," Ianto continued with that smile still in his eyes, "you do need someone skilled to take care of the, um, lower levels."

"Not to mention the electrics," Jack said with a grin. He would not be outdone.

"And the timing." Jack, who had been taking another drink of his coffee to celebrate having the last word, nearly choked on it. Then he laughed out loud, remembering not just their date, but also a certain evening in his office with Ianto and the stopwatch.

"Absolutely," he agreed, letting Ianto win. "You're extremely good at timing."

Letting Ianto win also meant facing up to the day, and Jack put down his mug to rest his arms on the table, taking a last carefree moment to notice the slight red marks on his wrists where the handcuffs had been. He'd really wanted to get out of them by the end.

"So what do we do?" Ianto asked. Jack sighed and rested his chin on his hand thoughtfully as he looked at Ianto over the table.

"We can't kill it. And believe me, you don't want to try." He'd never tried it himself, but he'd heard stories about those who had. Jack wanted to shiver, but resisted the temptation.

"Ok," Ianto replied, with a little bit less sincerity than Jack would have liked to hear.

"No, really," he said with an earnest look. "When they feel threatened they emit an hallucinogenic into the atmosphere. It works like a bad acid trip."

Without telling him about it first, his mind floated back a few decades. He'd had great hopes for the sixties that had been completely dashed. The era of sexual freedom and revolution, and still half of the things he was fond of were illegal. The rest were frowned upon, misunderstood, or just completely beyond the comprehension of those around him. Jack sighed, but knew he'd live to see freedom again. All he had to do was wait for it.

"Hmm..." Ianto said expressively, deep in thought. Jack considered him, and his lips lifted in a little smile. Things weren't all bad here and now, but he had to make sure Ianto understood what he was saying.

"Ianto, we have so many things to have waking nightmares about here, not least of which is a storage facility full of dead bodies." There was a frisson of fear in the room then that flashed between them. A betting man would have put his money on them both thinking about Suzie. A betting man would be wrong. There were worse things than their ex-colleague down there, and both of them knew it. "The right bad dreams can kill," Jack continued, waiting for Ianto's terse nod. "And we've got things that can kill as well." Jack paused again. "You know the archives better than any of us. You know what we've got stored there."

He could see Ianto's mind working, his imagination picking up where that left off and painting pictures for him. For a second there was sheer terror in Ianto's eyes, then, just like that, it was hidden. But at last Jack felt his words had been taken in. "Point taken," Ianto said somewhat gravely. Both of them thought in weighty silence for a moment.

"How does something like that come to exist, Jack?" Ianto asked with a shake of his head. "It's so unlikely."

"Not really," Jack argued. "The earth has variety enough, and we're talking about an entire universe of possibility once you move past that." Ianto didn't look entirely convinced, so Jack decided to give him a bit of a lesson in Bezalean sea lizards. It was something he'd picked up from a galactic broadcast once. "You see in its natural habitat, the lizard feeds on these little fish. All it needs to do is emit that light and all the little fish stop what they're doing. The sea lizard then just skims along the surface of the water, catching all the floating fish."

"I'm having sex with David Attenborough," Ianto said laconically, and Jack fought the urge to giggle.

"As for the hallucinogen," he continued. "That's airborne, since their natural predator is this kind of big bird. They go mad when it hits them. Works like octopus ink, and the lizard uses the time to get away."

"Hmm..." said Ianto doubtfully, "still rather unlikely if you ask me."

"Let's have a look at it," Jack suggested, and Ianto looked at him as though he'd just said they should go out and mug old ladies. He stood up. "Come on."

"But I thought..." Ianto said with a raised eyebrow. "You said it wasn't harmless," he pointed out.

"It's when you get in the water with it that you're lost," Jack explained as Ianto stood as well… just a little too quickly. "We'll be all right if we just take a look." His voice and words were reassurance itself, and he smiled just to complete the experience. _Trust me, _he said in silence. But it was a trap. He knew it, and Ianto knew it. But neither of them were going to say no. They were going down there for more. It was worse than nicotine with a side order of heroin.

* * *

"Where's the light?" Ianto asked as they walked into one of the lower rooms. None of the others had any reason to venture here. It was in complete darkness, except for a slight phosphorescence that came from the lizard where it lay at the bottom of the tank. "Is it dead?" 

Jack shook his head. They wouldn't have luck like that. He found the light switch and a single fluorescent tube lit up, giving the room just enough light to see by but no more. He would suggest they get more lights set up, but there really wasn't any need for them. Nothing was supposed to be happening down here.

"It reacts to presences in the water," Jack said as they both walked nearer, compelled to do it. Ianto had managed to get hold of a large clear perspex tank with high sides. Since Jack had asked for a shallow tank, he had made sure that one side was almost completely removed, and the water level was just underneath that edge. "Watch."

Without thinking too much – because what could that help – Jack plunged both of his hands into the warm water. The temperature was kept constant and even by a clever device Ianto had somehow appropriated from the specialist aquarium on the other side of the city. He felt his eyes flutter closed as the lizard sent flashes of light through the water, and he dragged his hands out with a herculean effort of self-control. The faint red marks were gone.

He turned to Ianto with the intention of showing him, and Ianto's eyes were on the pulsing light inside the tank. Without any thought at all, Jack cupped Ianto's face with his wet hands and kissed him right there. It was something he needed more than life. He pushed Ianto into the side of the tank that was whole and broke the kiss to slide his hands down Ianto's face, wet fingertips brushing over his lips and Jack saw the exact moment when it overcame him.

His eyes closed, and he leaned his head back against the tank as his hands settled on Jack's hips to pull him closer. They were separated from the pulsing light by a wall of perspex, and it was beautiful torment. Since Ianto had moved his head back, Jack latched his lips onto Ianto's neck and tasted traces of the water that had run down from his face.

"Ok," Ianto said; the first one of them to speak. "I get it."

"Yeah," Jack broke off from his diligent worship of Ianto's neck to reply. Ianto's hands had found their way under his shirt, and the undershirt beneath, roving his skin. In response he pressed Ianto into the side of the tank, grinding against him slow and hard. "Now sooner or later," Jack said breathlessly, still trying to fool them both, "you're going to think it's a good idea to get in there again."

Ianto moaned and met Jack's slow grinding movement as his hands worked at getting Jack's shirt off. Similarly, now Jack was concerned with removing Ianto's jacket and tie. He yanked at the tie to loosen it, and that made Ianto fall against him in such a way that instead of concerning themselves with clothes they ended up kissing each other again, arms around each other as if they would never let go. After a long minute, the kiss ended and they went back to clumsily removing each other's clothes. "I'm thinking that now," Ianto confessed in a roughened voice that Jack only recognised because he had heard it for the first time the night before.

"So am I," Jack said urgently, success with the tie meaning that now he could take off Ianto's shirt. His talented fingers fumbled with buttons, and when was the last time he had fumbled? Losing patience, he tore the shirt apart and the buttons made violent little clinking sounds where they bounced on the floor and on the side of the tank.

"They come from the planet Beza," Jack said as if facts could save them. He left off Ianto's shirt for a moment as his own was removed, and his t-shirt was pulled over his head. Immediately, Ianto's hands fell to his pants as he leaned forward and bit into Jack's shoulder. With a savage shout, Jack slammed Ianto back into the side of the tank which replied with a dull thunk as he resumed the slow grinding motion. He could feel the hardness there – in them both – and he raised one hand to Ianto's hair and pulled. His lips moved over Ianto's like fire, and then they stared into each other's eyes helplessly. Ianto's pleaded, maybe for some kind of sanity, and Jack continued with his story.

"The first two transport ships that tried to move them away from that planet crashed into their stations," he said, aware that both of them were taking advantage of the lull to finish the job of undressing. Both of them were nearly naked now. Jack kicked off his shoes with a growl of impatience and then buried his face in the side of Ianto's neck as the other man squeezed at his buttocks. "The crew were too busy to pay attention to protocol," he gasped, "and correct docking procedures."

"Jack," Ianto said, and he didn't know if he'd ever heard anyone sound so full of lust. That it was Ianto, so usually restrained and in control almost drove him wild. "I'm really not taking that seriously enough." Jack still had the capacity to smile – just – and he did.

"No, neither am I," he said. They leaned against each other for a short moment, clothes strewn over the floor around them, a brief respite before the violence began again.

"Can we get out of here?" Ianto asked, sounding strangely aware of exactly what was happening to him, and Jack wondered if perhaps staying out of the water for this long might have saved them.

"I don't know," he confided. "Do you want to?" His eyes closed as he breathed in with his nose buried in Ianto's neck, still feeling very much the animal. "How far away is the door?"

"Further away than me." It was a new voice. They were no longer alone, and Jack stared helplessly at Ianto as he felt someone else, fully clothed, press against his back. "Well! Hello again, eye candy. Like your present?" There was enough of Ianto left to look a little horrified.

"It's him," he said, eyes not on Jack but on who was behind him. An angular chin rested itself on his shoulder, and Jack closed his eyes.

"Yeah. I can tell." How had he got in here? And with that thought he knew there was something he had been meaning to do. Change all of the access codes. Though maybe even that wouldn't have kept him out.

"I'm suddenly feeling a bit overdressed. What do you say we all go for a little dip?" Was he still playing at being Captain John Hart, Jack wondered? Where had that disguise come from anyway? He groaned in unwanted but helpless lust when John pressed him forward, trapping him between them both.

"Jack," Ianto gasped as they rolled against each other deliciously. Jack opened his eyes and he just couldn't regret the way Ianto looked.

"Now, now, eye candy," the man behind him chastised. "No need to be like that. We'll all get a chance to be in the middle." Ianto shook his head as if to clear it, but the look of desperate desire stayed in his eyes. He turned those eyes meaningfully on Jack.

"Money..." he said, obviously meaning much more than that. Jack wanted to understand so much that he growled and behind him John laughed.

"Oh, you're still trying to think!" he exclaimed, the comment directed at Ianto. "Cute! I can't wait have you..."

"No gun?" Jack asked sarcastically, aware that the man behind him was removing his clothes as well, though far more efficiently than either he or Ianto had.

"Well, you know," John said, a smirk in his voice that Jack knew well. "I'm sure you've told him. Best not to scare the lizard." He pulled one of Jack's still slightly damp hands to his mouth and sucked on one of his fingers so suggestively that Jack groaned and thrust against Ianto, pressing their hardnesses together. He saw Ianto's eyes roll up in his head in pleasure. "And it's not like I'm going to have to throw you in," John said then, his voice a little deeper. "Is it?"

Jack didn't answer, and Ianto recovered, only to look behind Jack again. "Is it?" John repeated, this time to Ianto.

"You nag like a wife," Jack said with a sneer that only Ianto could see.

"What can I say?" John replied breezily. "Learnt it all from my mother. Wonderful woman. Twelve husbands."

Ianto half smiled, and Jack wanted to kiss him again when he spoke. "Lucky it wasn't thirteen."

Behind him there was an expressive groan. "You can't really enjoy it with these people," John said in disgust. Jack thought about the list, and thought about the lizard being number thirteen.

"He might have a point," Jack said, and he and Ianto shared a smile that had nothing to do with numbers. He wasn't expecting it, so when John wrenched him back he went heavily, and Ianto slipped from his hands and stood alone by the side of the tank.

"Into the water, eye candy," John ordered, and Ianto rolled his eyes before throwing such a dirty look John's way that Jack laughed. But he wasn't prepared for Ianto to look at him with a question in his eyes, and had he thought earlier it was like nicotine and heroin? They were nothing compared to the futility of resisting this.

"Do it," he commanded harshly, his voice tight with need, suddenly dropping the smile that had been on his lips, and there was such a fleeting, beautiful look of betrayal before Ianto glowered at him, too. He was going to pay for this later, and Jack found that at this precise moment, he didn't really care. There was nothing he wanted more than this again. Again, and again and again.

They both watched as Ianto climbed over the edge, and then Jack turned to face his friend and nemesis. "Just get in the water," John suggested with a wicked smile before Jack could speak. He was naked now too, and Jack held his arm out politely to let him go first. John obliged him too eagerly, eyes on Ianto as Jack spoke.

"Ladies before gentlemen," Jack murmured. As he lowered himself into the water, and Jack prepared to follow him, John turned and glared.

"I'm so going to kill you," he promised. Jack smiled.

"Still can't die," he advised. Something gleamed in John's eyes as Ianto embraced him from behind.

"And still you say we aren't meant to be together," he said with a look of intense concentration as Ianto's lips moved on his neck and he struggled to remain lucid enough to speak. "That's denial."

Jack followed him into the water, where the light pulsed a mindless staccato, and he put his arms around John, grabbing at Ianto's hips to hold all three of them together, making sure that John groaned in lust before him. "Oh, yeah?"

He could feel himself tuning out as it began, and yet he heard John's last words. "Maybe not." They were the last coherent words any of them would speak for a while.

**Author's Note: **Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Comments welcome and will encourage me to write more.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author:** pippychick  
**Fandom:** Torchwood  
**Rating:** M  
**Pairing(s):** Jack/Ianto, Jack/John, Ianto/John, Implied Jack/Nine/Rose  
**Summary:** The coffee machine really does get some action. The guys are all too tired to play, and something apart from caffeine is keeping Jack from his lizard-induced coma-like sleep. He's going to want answers soon.  
**Disclaimer:** Russell T Davies owns these characters and their world. Please don't sue me for playing with them, mister. They're so pretty that I couldn't help it. I promise to wash them down afterwards with hot soapy water and give them back. To the BBC. You are not the Badwolf Corporation, even though you have been manipulating the Doctor's entire life. Just saying, he's yours, not mine. I make no money out of this.

**Author's Note:**

Ok, people.

First things first, a big thank you to my reviewers for the last chapter: Reefgirl, Penelope Tweede, Boo26, and PlayKate. I'm really glad that people are enjoying this. And PlayKate, if you manage to get a Bezalean sea lizard from your local petstore, please ask if they deliver to the UK, then I can take one to Cardiff and show it John Barrowman.

This chapter is a strange one, quite a bit heavier than the chapters before, with a lot of Jack history/character stuff, and a bit of merging into DW. Sorry about that.

If you don't like this, because I have no idea if it works, or if it fits in the context and with what I've written before. If you don't like it, let me know, and I'll rewrite it to be a bit lighter.

Thank you.

**Sleepless in Cardiff**

Once more they had made it back, against all the odds, but this time there was an addition. True awareness didn't return until they were somewhat settled, after all of the exhausted pushing and shoving. The small space set aside in the Hub for Jack to sleep wasn't exactly roomy at the best of times. He and Ianto had filled it between them before – and now there was a third.

That was where they were when some sense of the here and now came back, tangled together, laid over each other in a satiated heap, like sleeping puppies or wolves, only one of them was a bad wolf. Slowly, only half-conscious of it, they rearranged themselves into separate entities. Now they were playing sardines, which would become something of an irony later on.

Jack opened his eyes only because he was too lazy to continue resting there with his eyes shut. And, simply because there was nothing else to look at, his gaze drifted lingeringly over the naked forms of his two companions. John Hart. It would do as a name. What were names anyway? They were only there to make the paperwork easier.

Blue eyes hazy with satisfaction stared back at him, and Jack noticed for the first time that John was awake. So much to say, but for the moment he couldn't be bothered with any of it. Jack would be a liar if he claimed he didn't spend the next few minutes recalling their time together. The fights, their escapades, the arguments, the fabulous sex. The death threats. It had been fun. But that was before he met the Doctor. Since then Jack only had one name. Still stolen, but permanent. Almost as if he'd finally committed himself to something.

Jack allowed a little of a smile, and John smiled back, but Jack wasn't thinking about the present, or even the recent past. It hadn't started with the bomb. It had started with Rose. Saving her had been the beginning. Admittedly, his motive had been to save the person he thought could pay for the goods – but it had still started there. He still didn't know why he had stopped the bomb from falling on London at the last minute like that. He had been clear and out of danger, when something made him go back.

A large part of it had been the opportunity to make himself look damn good in front of them both, and he hadn't really believed it would be the end of him. The chance had been there, but he thought he knew how to gamble. Turned out he didn't. Volcano day was the day he got out of the way – except that once. Finding out he had lost the bet had come as something of a revelation, but he couldn't change it. And then Rose and the Doctor had rescued him as well like it was some kind of crazy encore. He clearly remembered the way the Doctor had danced with them both, and afterwards he had still been hyperactive and jolly, every now and again exclaiming: "Everyone lives!" for no reason at all. Since then Jack had changed. Not overnight, but he had changed.

Only the Doctor, contrived or not, could fashion such a complete cynic into a hero. At first, his loyalty had been to the Doctor and Rose, and then one day while travelling with them, he discovered he cared about whoever the Doctor was trying to help.

Ianto moaned tiredly on the other side of John and Jack's gaze flickered over to him for an instant as he dragged his mind back to the present. John caught his look and smiled with a flash of white teeth.

"I think we broke him," he said in amusement. Jack found the energy to laugh quietly.

"You really don't know him at all, then."

"Oh?" John countered, his face an approximation of surprised pleasure. "Does that mean I will?"

Jack managed to shrug in answer. He really didn't know about that. It would be up to Ianto, and he didn't think much of John's chances. But for now, he rested his upper body weight on one weary elbow and leaned over John. Ianto seemed to be asleep, and so for all intents and purposes they were as alone as they were going to get. If he had been more awake, he might have been in the mood for questioning John Hart. But he wasn't more awake, and as his old accomplice looked up at him, Jack realised something just a little painful. His comrade was impossibly older, and Jack knew they weren't on the correct time line, because as far as his own time line was concerned this man was long dead. He'd always have that boyish look, but he was older. So much older.

Since he had arrived back in eighteen-sixty-nine, Jack Harkness had learnt more than a few things. Alone, a long way from home, and more importantly without Rose and the Doctor, he had wondered if this profound change in him would disappear – but it didn't. Finding out he couldn't die had made it even easier to be the hero, and he became someone whom others depended upon wherever he went. It was as if they could sense it in him.

Still, he wouldn't have said he was altruistic. Everything he did, he did with a conscious dash of flair and egotism. Although he did eventually learn some sense of propriety. It took a while (and several fatal lynchings) for him to learn that not everyone was as open-minded as he would like, and that they (sometimes) didn't just want to be seduced into it either. After that he began to gather people around him that he could be himself in front of. He learned that there were two sides to every Gentleman's Club; you just had to know where to look and who to approach. But they didn't allow women. The world moved much too slowly for his taste, even now when half the world claimed to be promiscuous. Perhaps that was partly the reason he had finally decided on leading a version of Torchwood.

Yes, he hated to admit it, but he had acclimatised somewhat to the times. He sensed the slowly changing world, and allowed himself a little more of this, a little more of that. Still, there was a core in him that was playful and missed his old libertine self, but he had forgotten what it really was until now. No guilt, no right or wrong, just good times. He sighed as those blue eyes sparkled in what seemed like knowing amusement, and Jack did the only reasonable thing under the circumstances. He leaned down and kissed the man who had brought such trouble (such wonderful pleasure) to them.

He only meant for it to be brief; just a taste, and his intentions didn't change, only – he didn't have the wherewithal to stop. The kiss deepened so slowly he hardly noticed, but they were so very tired and somehow that made it more like surrender than any other kiss they had ever shared. They pulled apart at last, still gazing at each other.

"We both know you can't make this mean anything," John teased, meaning more than one thing by it. Jack shook his head.

There had been loves in his life since he had travelled with the Doctor. Great loves, casual affairs, brief encounters, and those who would be his match. The change in him had made him appreciate every one of them more than ever. Every taste was different, and a rare privilege. That had been the biggest change. Some, like Estelle, he had never told the truth to, shielding them from it and caring for them even when they didn't know he was there. Others, he had attempted to stay with, telling just a few of his secrets.

Andrew had been one. They had been soldiers together when he was young. And then, later, officers, until eventually, when the world seemed somewhat peaceful after the Boer War, and before anyone could imagine the Great War that was to take so many lives, they had settled. Actually, he had decided upon it after encountering fairies for the first time on a troop train where he had been Captain. They had settled and spread the rumour that they were brothers, so that Jack could try to forget. They could never have stayed in one place for longer than a couple of years though, and when they moved again, they settled as father and son. But Jack had been the older, despite appearances, and nothing could ever make him forget the utter anguish of being sent to war again in the trenches as a young able-bodied soldier while Andrew lived out the end of his life alone. By the time Jack returned, his spirited Andrew was gone forever.

Yes, love had been a crueller mistress for his rehabilitation at the hands of the Doctor, and yet she had been more beautiful than anything he had known before. At first he had been sure his new-found conscience would desert him. Now he knew he could never let it go. There was nothing about his life before that held even a tenth of the riches that it did now. Loss could never again mean regret to him. And therein was the difference.

Jack looked at John and he was so much older than when they were together. So fragile. Suddenly all he saw was an animal that didn't understand it was about to be put to death, and it was almost heartbreaking. "No, I can't. I can't make this mean anything to you, and I'm sorry," he said tenderly, not without sadness, and when John rolled his eyes it just made him seem all the more pathetic. An animal shouting at the coming dark.

Still, he couldn't possibly stop himself from trying. John was from the same place as Jack, after all; free of the jealousies, the inhibitions and expectations of exclusivity that the human race was taking so long to shake off. This was what he missed more than anything. John was dangerous, but so wonderfully easy on his soul, and he had hungered for this particular kind of easy for so, so long. He leaned down again, fully intending to continue the kiss when there was an incredulous sigh from the other side of John.

"How can you possibly have the energy?" Ianto asked, his voice wavering on the edge of a yawn. "Either of you?" he accused. They looked at him, and then back at each other, sharing a secret that for all Jack's attentions, Ianto knew little about. In deference to that, Jack moved away and fell back onto the bed with a sigh of defeat. There wasn't any guilt in the face of Ianto's disapproval, but all the same he couldn't continue now.

"Don't blame me," John said to Ianto in complete insincerity, "I can't even lift a finger." Jack looked at him, and John had his eyebrows raised in that annoying but cute way. He was mocking Ianto, and Jack watched them both closely, wondering if he even had the strength to step in.

A change that Jack wasn't expecting came over Ianto's face, as of someone realising they'd left the gas fire on five hours into a coach trip, and he just carried on watching, puzzled. "Where is your hand?" Ianto asked, his voice toneless, obviously not daring to look. John had no such quibbles, and Jack followed his gaze down Ianto's body, only to have to fight to keep in the silly smile.

"Want me to move it?" John asked with a dirty grin, and Ianto just looked at him. He couldn't reply without appearing as though he were asking for some kind of sexual favour, and they all knew it.

Ianto was staring now, still making no reply, and Jack knew what he was looking at. John may be older, but it was still him. He was as pretty as ever, and white pillows really suited him. When he was asleep in bed, he looked like an angel. When he had just woken, he was irresistible – adorable. Jack grinned, and recalled making sure there were always fluffy white pillows for their bed, and the way they'd taken advantage of John's adorable side more than once during con tricks.

The longer this went on, the less chance Ianto had of resisting. Jack settled back to watch happily and wait for the outcome. After his thoughts earlier, his money turned out to be on John.

"Move. Your. Hand." Ianto sounded very calm, only Jack knew that was fury. The full stops really gave it away. He looked to John as if it were a tennis match.

"Oh, eye candy!" he said, and then looked down at his hand. "Move," he told it sternly. His hand stayed obstinately still. Jack hid his sudden smile behind his hand. Ianto's glare could have boiled water, and John plastered a look of fake apology onto his face, biting his lip as if in concentration as he looked down at his hand again.

It must have been like torture for Ianto, because John's hand did move, very very slowly. In fact, his fingers kind of... _dragged_ over Ianto. There was no physical response of course, they really were too tired, but Ianto let his breath go in a quiet sigh, and his glare changed just a little. Oh, his money really was on John now. He could imagine the calculation in John's mind, and as he expected, the man made himself look so appealing and innocent he was almost taken in himself.

Ianto moved closer, as if it was beyond his control. "Jack," he said uncertainly without looking away from John.

"It's all right," he replied, intending to reassure, but Ianto had always been more than he seemed. He wasn't asking for permission, or apologising. He was _aware_. Of course, Jack had warned Ianto about John when he first appeared._He's a villain. If he approaches you, take any threats seriously, and disregard anything else._

"No, it's not," Ianto replied to him, again without looking, and he meant losing himself in it and giving in, because after that it was all over. Their lips touched tentatively at first before they began to kiss in earnest. John lifted his hand at last to cup Ianto's face, and he saw Ianto press that wayward hand down in the pillows. Shame about the exhaustion, really, because they were beautiful together. Jack watched Ianto and John Hart for at least half a minute before he heard footsteps. He put out an urgent hand to Ianto's arm, and the kiss ended with John and Ianto barely a breath away from each other as the footsteps came nearer. Ianto concentrated for a moment.

"Tosh," he mouthed silently, and Jack nodded.

The footsteps were slower as they approached the sleep space, before stopping completely.

"I checked the cctv." Toshiko's elegant voice sounded so close and clear. Jack and Ianto looked at each other; behind the controlled accent Tosh was concerned. "I can tell there are three of you in there, but the records have gone."

John smiled at them both in a very satisfied way. The three of them remained quiet. "Jack?" Toshiko questioned carefully.

He moistened his lips. "Yeah," he called out in a croaky voice. "It's me."

There was another silence. "Ianto?" Toshiko was less certain this time. There was a hurried conversation between him and Jack that was mainly comically exaggerated faces and rolling eyes before Ianto replied.

"I'm here," he conceded dully as if he were answering the school register.

Another silence, much longer. Jack and Ianto looked at John, and then –

"Gwen?" Jack laughed out loud, and even Ianto smirked as John rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Vera," he called out helpfully, and there was the very definite click of a trigger being pulled back.

"Whoa!" Jack managed to call out in alarm, and sat up so quickly he held his head for a second. "Tosh? It's all right!"

He looked around wildly, until Ianto pointed helpfully at a corner of the sleep space where his robe hung. Summoning all of the energy he possessed, Jack clutched it and somehow wrapped it around him before climbing unsteadily out to reassure Toshiko.

"Jack? What's happening?" she questioned. He gently covered the gun with his hand and lowered it down to the floor, then for a moment longer than strictly necessary he held Toshiko in his arms.

"We're not in any danger. It's all right," he said, coaxing as Tosh let the gun go. He released the trigger slowly and then stumbled a little.

"Jack!" Toshiko exclaimed in concern. "Will you tell me what's going on? Why are you all...?" Something seemed to occur to her and she lifted one eyebrow at Jack, who shrugged a bit. "You do realise you've left Ianto alone in there with him, don't you?" she said disapprovingly. Jack smiled, wishing someone would follow him out. Coffee would be really good around now.

"Well..." he said, casting his eyes impatiently back as if that would get Ianto out more quickly. "I imagine they're – " He stopped, suddenly able to very precisely imagine just what was happening in there. Ianto was probably following him very faithfully.

Considering, he thought it was probably safe. They really were exhausted. "Tosh!" he said brightly, throwing a heavy arm around her shoulders as an underhand way of getting some support. "You're a genius! But have I ever shown you how the coffee machine works?"

* * *

A while later, four people were sat around the Hub's kitchen table, each of them with a mug. Jack and John were both wearing dressing gowns. Ianto somehow had made himself look more than presentable. In fact, he looked great. Somewhere, Ianto was keeping clothes, which meant he was getting really good at waking up in Jack's bed. Jack tried not to be impressed by it and failed utterly. He tried not to drool, and thankfully succeeded at that. 

They sat in silence for a bit. Somewhere a clock ticked. Did they have a clock that ticked? Clearly they did. Maybe that Billis guy had left one. Jack looked very seriously at everyone in turn. John smirked at everyone in turn. Ianto sipped his coffee and tried not to grimace. Toshiko was the only one who truly had the grace to look uncomfortable.

The clock ticked, counting away the seconds. Jack let his imagination run riot, and shared an unspoken meaningful look with Ianto. John folded his arms.

"Well!" Toshiko said at last with a bright smile, as though they were all old friends. Some of them were. "I've really got some work to do. I think I'll just pick it up and take it home." She paused, clearly not certain, and looked at Ianto and Jack in turn. "Are you sure you're all right?" John smirked for not being included, and Jack gave him an exasperated look before smiling at Toshiko.

"We're fine. Promise. We'll see you tomorrow, bright and early."

"We're all right," Ianto added, looking up briefly, and that seemed to convince Tosh when Jack couldn't.

"All right," she said, and couldn't quite hide her relief at the escape. "See you in the morning, then," she said and left her mug on the table as she went to collect her things from her workstation.

Three people sat around the Hub's kitchen table. John sighed. Jack took a first sip of Toshiko's coffee and grimaced. Ianto shook his head slightly. There was silence. Somewhere, a clock ticked. John picked up his mug to look inside it doubtfully, having noticed the grimaces of the other two, and Ianto rose from his chair, taking the mug from him with a head shake of disgust.

"I'm going to make some real coffee," he said. He gathered the mugs and set to work while Jack watched him happily.

"What are you so excited about?" John asked.

"Oh... you'll see," Jack said with a grin. He saw Ianto had heard him because he shook his head again. Jack laughed, and then turned his attention to John once more. "And then, we're gonna want some answers," he warned, much more seriously.

"Oh? You mean the price," John said with a satisfied nod.

"_All_ I mean," Jack said firmly, "is that Toshiko will be alerting Owen and Gwen as we speak. I think we've got about," Jack deliberated and checked his watch, "twenty minutes of alone time before they're all here? Ianto?"

"I would tend to agree with that, Sir." John raised an eyebrow at the comment and then gave Jack an appraising glance.

"He's really good! How much do you have to pay him?"

"They're all really mad at you still. Just a friendly warning," Jack said, ignoring the comment. John sat back with a smug smile.

"And just think how much more easy-going they'll be when I introduce them to what's downstairs," he deliberated. "Oh! Unless of course you can think of a way to convince me to stay quiet."

A sudden clear image of Owen, Gwen and Tosh in the water together made Jack swallow. Wow. Ianto dropped a mug, and it smashed on the floor. Obviously, he had just imagined exactly the same thing. After that, the clock ticked. Jack smiled coldly at his old accomplice, and John had the common sense to look a little alarmed.

"You're keeping from my sleep," he pointed out with a menacing tilt of his head. John took a deep breath, and then leaned forward with a faux look of troubled concern.

"Only the elderly get that way about nocturnal activities," he pointed out with a nod, trying to encourage Jack to nod back at him.

Jack pulled himself to his feet and walked around the table to where John sat. He lay a friendly hand on John's shoulder. Then, without a great deal of fuss, he leaned down and whispered into John's ear how old he was. He also explained his sleep patterns and how much sleep he could be expected to get in any one month. Very calmly, Jack advised John that he would not be kept from sleep. When he had finished, John appeared to be taking the entire thing a little more seriously.

Ianto put a coffee mug down on the table in front of him, and John jumped with Jack's hand on his shoulder. "Yeah," he said with a nod. "I can kind of see why that would be important to you."

John appeared to think for a moment. "Why don't we get rid of them? I'll keep the secret... for now. And later we can, you know, negotiate."

Jack looked at Ianto helplessly. For now, they couldn't do anything more.

"You won't say a word," Jack said to John as if it was an order.

"Oh, my lips are sealed," he said, with a trace of his usual flirty humour.

Their twenty minutes had drained away to fifteen.

**Author's Note: **Thank you for reading, I hope you're enjoying it. Please let me know if this chapter worked for you. I'm really not sure about it, and I don't have a beta reader to advise me.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author:**pippychick**  
Fandom:**Torchwood**  
Rating:**M**  
Pairing(s):**Jack/Ianto, Jack/John, Ianto/John**  
Summary:** John Hart admits to why he has turned up. Surprisingly, he appears to have told the truth to Ianto about money. He also owns up about why else he sent the lizard. Jack/Ianto slash content.

**Disclaimer:** Jack, Ianto and John don't belong to me, unfortunately. They belong to all the people who had a hand bringing them to life, including but not limited to Russell T Davies, the BBC, John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd and James Marsters. I make no money from this. Please don't sue me – I can't pay and if I do end up in prison I'll only write on the walls. Don't make me resort to graffiti.

**Author's Notes:**

Ok! Sorry about the delay. Normal service shall now hopefully be resumed. Here is the next chapter from me, during which we find out John Hart's ostensible reason for returning to Torchwood to bother Jack.

I hope you enjoy it. This one has been beta read by the wonderful Thedoctorshope900, and the slash content has been tweaked a little by me with sincere thanks to Dan for his advice and patience, who is a lot less embarrassed than my stepfather when questioned about manly things. ;)

Before I shut up and get on with it, I'll just thank my fabulous reviewers for the last chapter: Reefgirl, Faramirlover, PlayKate, Penelope Tweede, AMM3485, Thedoctorshope900, MCross, jackandiantoisforever, butterfly.cell, 55Valencia55, muppetmadness, LadyAJ. Thank you so all much for your encouragement:)

Despite the above, there are certain of my stories which now have more favourites than reviews. Please, if you enjoy it enough to add it as a favourite, let me know. I promise I don't bite. Reviews make me write more quickly because they feed my inspiration. Thank you.

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

A few very efficient seconds later, they were all sat down again; this time with decent coffee. Despite his admission, John Hart had shaken off his alarmed surprise and now appeared as insolent and roguish as ever. Ianto was sat by the side of Jack, and they both looked at him over the table.

"Ok," Jack said as calmly as he could manage. This had gone far enough. "I'm listening. Talk."

"You know, you really do make quite a team," John said, somehow managing to combine sarcasm with sincerity. "I'm impressed." Jack raised an eyebrow. "Do the others know what you really are?" As he spoke, his gaze switched between them so that it wasn't clear who his question was addressing. Perhaps it was both of them anyway. Jack caught himself and held back an impatient sigh.

"Cut it out. I said talk," he demanded again, making the first time he had asked seem particularly polite. John glared.

"Ok, if that's what you really want," he said, sulking. Then a mischievous smile lit up his blue eyes. "I could think of better things to do with my mouth, but –"

"Are you always this difficult?" Ianto asked suddenly, cool and calm, and John switched his gaze to smile at him.

"Oh, but don't you like it that way? A little bit of resistance to overcome..." He let his sentence end there, between them, dirty and suggestive. "I know I do," he murmured into his cup. His eyebrows lifted as if he had found something particularly nice in there. He had – it was Ianto's coffee. Jack's patience began to wear very thin though, and only the sure and certain knowledge that he wouldn't get what he wanted stopped him from violence. Did he really know? Or had it just been a tease? Just something to make him pay attention? It was entirely plausible, and Jack desperately needed to find out.

"Difficult," Ianto repeated thoughtfully, "with a pronounced lack of creativity." He sounded as if he were noting it for future reference, and Jack found his lips lifting into a little smile despite it all as John scowled. He made it one-nil, to Ianto.

Under the table, out of sight, Jack was surprised to find himself quietly taking hold of Ianto's hand. He didn't really know why he did it, except that he needed to know Ianto was on his side. Though there was a slightly sharp inhalation of breath, Jack was certain Ianto didn't show any shock on his face as he closed his fingers around Jack's, squeezing a little.

"Grey. Where is he?" Jack asked outright, then he swallowed, and more quietly, he asked: "How is he?" John looked back to him, away from Ianto.

"He's – older," John replied, and then moistened his lips deliberately. "Quite a bit older, actually." It was impossible to miss the innuendo, and Jack felt Ianto's hand tighten around his in sympathetic anger, though he didn't really know what this was about. Jack shook his head slightly as a warning, and gave John nothing more than a relaxed grin. It was just baiting. But then John didn't say anything else, and as the silence between the three of them stretched and lengthened, Jack became quietly furious. Years he had searched before he gave in, and only then because he realised he no longer knew what Grey would look like. Billions of people in the universe, and not one of them seemed to be Grey. Not one of them was his father either, and that had hurt just as much. A harsh lesson: wretchedness was searching for the dead in the eyes of the living.

Seven long years, and he had still been searching for a child that had let go of his hand. A life that had slipped through his fingers like sand. For his brother. That loss had fuelled the easy way Jack took to the casual culture of his own time. As he matured, he embraced himself fully, became a true hedonist, skilled in giving and receiving pleasure, seeking it for comfort when with every step he faced his own failure. But no lover, no matter how easy it flowed, could replace what he had lost. He could never know any of them well enough. They could never know him the way Grey had, and so the more casual they were the better. John had come the closest. Their humorous bickering had once soothed something in him. Something that had hurt and was hurting still. It wasn't soothing him now.

"Where?" he asked again, at last, his voice slightly ragged as he relived coming to the conclusion that he would never see his brother again. To let go of Grey and mean it had been a painful but decisive step and Jack had worked hard to forget since then. Since then he had lived more than a lifetime. Now, as the memories rushed in, it felt good to hold Ianto's hand, and it also kept him from just killing John where he sat. He looked away from that unbearable smile, and caught Ianto's eye.

"You should know better than to make this important, Jack," John reproached. "I almost pity you." Jack shook his head, aware of how quickly the time they had was passing while John evaded his questions. He needed longer. "Well, I would," John amended then, "if I could." So cold. Ianto looked away from him, and Jack paid attention to John again too.

"Tell us why you're here," Ianto demanded, changing the topic, giving Jack a way out of this for now. For this brief amount of time, Ianto was his champion, and how could it really be casual? It wasn't, and yet it couldn't last. Not forever. Jack let go of Ianto's hand, not really meaning it at all.

"All right. Spoil all my fun," John said with a roll of his eyes, but he seemed to obey Ianto. Jack noted that, and wondered if it was something he might be able to use later on. "It's been, what? A week for you? Two?"

"Two weeks," Jack confirmed as he felt Ianto's hand chasing his. He gave in, and beneath the table, Ianto concerned himself with rubbing his thumb in small circles over Jack's palm. It was obviously meant to be distraction and reassurance. He really liked it. There was no way in hell he was going to have Ianto stop doing it, even if it meant his mind wasn't entirely on the conversation. As discretely as possible, he pulled Ianto's hand closer to his leg. Ianto always played to win, regardless of the result. Jack remembered that when Ianto took him up on the unspoken challenge, and he swallowed nervously as John carried on. What had he let himself in for?

"Okay. It's been a few months for me."

"Since what?" Ianto asked, and Jack smirked. Wasn't it supposed to be him who wasn't keeping track?

John gave them both a somewhat suspicious and dirty look. "Since I was last here," he said then, impatient to tell his story now, or so it seemed. "Catch up, eye candy. Anyway, I told you that the time agency had shut down." Jack nodded as complacently as possible, given the fact that Ianto was now caressing him beneath the line of John's sight. He sneaked a look at Ianto as he brought his arms up and rested his elbows on the table. There was that some kind of subtle smile in his eyes. Oh, yeah – he was finding it amusing. "Trouble is, there's not much for me to do now," John continued. "Good cons are few and far between. There's this kind of depression going on in all the time lines, and while there's the odd bit to be made in trading – you know me. I mean that's just far too much like an honest job," he said, obviously depressed and dissatisfied. "Where's the fun?"

"Is there a point?" Jack asked, his voice cool. He knew John Hart too well to pity him for anything. And even if it wasn't a trick, he didn't deserve sympathy.

"Considering your age that's something I thought you might know," John quipped, acknowledging Jack's refusal to be taken in with a slight frown. Jack narrowed his eyes. "All right! Getting there." John was sulking again, but he carried on. "Bezalean sea lizards are about the best thing going in trade. You see – people will pay for them. And people will pay for you to take them away. You can even name your own price." He paused, then grinned happily, winking at them both. "And it's fun!"

"So why here? Why us?" Jack questioned as severely as possible. He began to wish Ianto would stop what he was doing... for now. He was only wearing a thin dressing gown after all, and that... Jack cleared his throat innocently as Ianto's hand slipped inside the lower part of his dressing gown.

"Well, I didn't have any buyers on the hook. And you know how dangerous they can be." John began to look like Jack felt – slightly uncomfortable. In fact, John even looked away from them for an instant. "I'm sort of on my own," he said hesitantly. "On a spaceship. With a lizard." He paused, then looked at Jack earnestly. "Can you remember that story about that guy...?"

Jack thought back for a second on all he knew or had heard of Bezalean sea lizards, then he laughed a little. "Oh, yeah..." he said throatily, half in reply, and half because Ianto was doing something so delicious to him in public. He wondered if John Hart could be counted as 'public' and thought that was a very definite yes. Damn, John Hart could be counted as public _property_.

"Got to be true," John said then, as if he didn't quite believe it himself. He took a deep breath, as if he'd just missed some terrible fate. "So I sent it here for a bit, to give myself a break, and because I knew you'd be happy for me to come and take it away once I had someone lined up." He smiled and sat back, his side of the story explained. "Seems to me all we're missing is a _little_ negotiation on the price."

"What are you expecting?" Jack asked, holding out his hands as if to show they were empty. "You must know that I don't have any currency you can use." John's eyes switched to Ianto as if in answer, and Jack really regretted that because Ianto's hand moved away from him.

"I've got a good imagination," John said meaningfully.

"Yes, you have," Jack said, his voice thoughtful, remembering. He turned his entire body towards Ianto and drew in a quick breath of consideration. "Do you think Owen would mind pretending to be you for an hour?" he asked hopefully, then glanced at John. "Or two," he amended.

Ianto just stared, a look of mild horror on his face. It was a rare thing to carry off, mild horror. Jack really appreciated it, and wondered what other unlikely facial expressions Ianto was capable of. Ianto glanced at John, and then back again. "Are you trying to creep me out, or does it just come naturally to you?" he asked with a touch of sarcasm.

"I love your imagination," Jack said, making a point that he saw Ianto acknowledge with a little smile. Then he couldn't help teasing some more. "Are you imagining it?"

"No." Ianto denied it, but that mild horror was back. Jack wanted to laugh. "And no, somehow I don't think he would even want to consider it."

"Really a definite no, huh? Sure?" Ianto just stared, and Jack acknowledged that with a slight nod and a regretful grimace, putting on a bit of mock disappointment for Ianto's benefit. Then he turned to face John, who had followed this entire exchange in silent amusement, and became a lot more serious. "What do you really want?"

"Well, I was thinking. Because you're Torchwood." Now they were getting to the heart of it. Jack nodded at him to go on. "You must have some things here that you never even look at. Like, useful things. I could, let's say, match them up with their rightful owners."

Beside him, Ianto huffed. "Absolutely not."

John looked at Ianto for a moment, and then back to Jack with a question. "That means no," Jack explained helpfully, and John narrowed his eyes and sniffed.

"Well, I did say we'd be negotiating. The lizard isn't going anywhere for now, I guess." John folded his arms. Time must be getting on, and Jack still hadn't got any real answers out of John Hart. But there was always later. For now, they had something to do together.

"We're going to have to get rid of the rest of them," he said shortly. The less people were around John Hart, the safer it would be. "You're going to help."

He watched as John caught on immediately and smiled. _Just like old times_. "Yes, Sir," he said, and then looked at Ianto as if he had scored some kind of point. "Watch and learn, eye candy," John said. Ianto didn't look all that bothered by the teasing. They stood up, and Jack took a moment to be relieved his arousal had died down a bit before he led the way out of the kitchen to the main part of the Hub. They had about ten minutes left.

"Better get dressed," he said to John, his eyes on Ianto and the fabulous suit he seemed to have plucked out of thin air a while ago. He had a change of clothes up here, but he was taller than John, and his clothes were still scattered on the floor downstairs. He thought for a moment. "You can go down alone for your clothes," he ordered with just a little bit of grim humour. "Be quick, and don't wander. Ianto will keep an eye on you from up here." John rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Sir," Ianto said, moving to a monitor to bring up CCTV of the stairs leading down to the lower levels. He caught John looking at him, and Ianto raised an eyebrow, that familiar amusement twinkling in his eyes.

"You might want to remember that I was doing this long before you were even born," Ianto said, and Jack saw John actually concede the point with a smile. In fact, John Hart looked as though he might really want Ianto. Jack didn't do jealousy. Really, he didn't. Not ever. It just wasn't something that factored with him. But there might be a way he could use John later on... it might even get him the answers he wanted. Kill two birds with one stone.

"Whenever you're ready," Ianto said politely. John turned to go, and Jack stood there blocking his way for a moment. John looked up at him, defiant even now. Even when he was going down there alone. When John came back up, they were going to be working this together, and Jack searched for something in his eyes. _What do you know_? Jack closed his eyes as John just smiled and breezed past him.

"Thanks," John said as a parting shot, as if he were disappointed in some way, and Jack turned around quickly, but he had already gone. Ianto was following him on the CCTV. _Later_, Jack thought, and moved behind Ianto to embrace him, fully intending to do something as payback for that secretive caress at the kitchen table. Especially since there hadn't been any kind of conclusion.

"You have less than ten minutes to get dressed, Sir," Ianto said pointedly without looking around. Jack smiled.

"I have four minutes to get dressed," he corrected, "and six to make you dishevelled enough to match me." Ianto manipulated the CCTV camera controls, but he shivered as Jack's arms closed around him.

"Or, you could put it like that, I suppose," he said, his voice strained.

"Oh, I think that I can put it anyway I want with you," Jack said with a little laugh. "Can't I?"

"But..." Ianto said, and then stopped breathing when Jack got right to it without any fuss, caressing him through his clothes. Well, it _was_ only six minutes. "Dishevelled?" he repeated uncertainly after a moment or two. He sounded a little afraid.

"Disorderly, then," Jack amended, nuzzling Ianto's neck, as his hands began to undo the buttons on Ianto's trousers.

"Erm..." Ianto said, more a groan than a disagreement. "What about – untidy?" he suggested at last. "I can manage untidy."

"Rumpled," Jack conceded with a note of finality, not willing to back down or barter any further. He pulled Ianto's hands behind him while he closed his eyes, wanting him to continue where he had left off earlier.

"Ok," Ianto replied, and then –

"Jack?" he said softly, his voice almost aching as Jack used the time to best advantage.

"Hmm-mm?" he replied, wishing Ianto would stop talking.

"You have to let me control the CCTV. He's getting away." Jack almost growled as he let Ianto's hands go free, but then turned all of his skilled attention to Ianto's body as a kind of revenge. It might only be six minutes, but Ianto would know just how many seconds that equated to by the end. Ianto gasped as he tried to follow John's progress through the maze of stairs and corridors and Jack grinned when Ianto moaned for him properly. He'd said rumpled. Of course, he'd meant dishevelled.

**Author's Note:** Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.


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